The Lower House on Thursday rejected a
no-confidence motion in Tourism Minister Daniela Santanché, with
213 MPs voting against, 121 in favour and three abstentions.
Santanché, a leading member of Premier Giorgia Meloni's
right-wing Brothers of Italy (FdI) party, was not in the House
for the vote as she had ministry-related engagements.
The motion was backed by all of the opposition parties except
for the centrist Italia Viva (IV) group amid criminal probes
into the minister's business activities.
On Wednesday the outcome of a separate no-confidence motion
against Deputy Premier and Transport Minister Matteo Salvini was
similar.
Santanché has said she would quit if she were prosecuted.
In the most serious case against her, she could face charges of
aggravated fraud against the Italian national pensions and
social security institute INPS over alleged irregular management
of funds made available for redundancy payments during the
Covid-19 pandemic, following a probe into allegedly improper
business practices related to her former Visibilia publishing
empire.
The 62-year-old minister, who sold her stake in Visibilia when
she became minister, has denied all wrongdoing.
She has said she is innocent and has vowed to clear her name if
the cases come to court.
The other cases involve alleged false accounting, alleged
fraudulent bankruptcy, and alleged money laundering.
The motion against Salvini, presented over his League party's
ties with the United Russia party, was defeated with 211 votes
against and 129 in favour.
Before Tuesday's vote, the League said that the agreement it had
with the ruling party in Russia party was no longer valid
following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. Salvini has also been
under fire for saying that "a people is always right when it
votes" following Russian President Vladimir Putin's recent
landslide re-election and for failing to blame Putin for the
death in a Siberian prison of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Salvini has expressed admiration for Putin several times in the
past, but he has also condemned Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
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